Once Upon a Summer Camp
by NothingImpossible
Summary: Emma thought summer camp that year couldn't get any worse, but she hadn't counted on the new lifeguard making things so much more... interesting. CS fluffy AU


**A/N:** _This is a birthday present for the awesome and supportive ice-cube1 who puts up with my insanity on a near-daily basis, is an amazing friend, and the evillest cheerleader. Thank you for coming to my message box all those months ago to tell me how little you trusted me with a certain minor character who shall not be named, I'm so happy I got a chance to get to know you. Here's to co-writing more pain in the future!_

 _All events and persons are the authors own imagination, any resemblance to persons both real and imagined are purely coincidental. I promise. Don't kill me, Cube..._

* * *

"If I have to listen to the Evil Queen give another speech about how we're not doing our jobs properly, I'm going to lost it," Elsa grumbled, slipping onto the bench. She plunked down two ice-cold water bottles onto the table, careful to keep them away from the paperwork spread out across it.

"Evil Queen?" Emma asked, distractedly grabbing one and downing half of it in a few gulps. She'd been trying to work out a schedule for the next week of camp but with so many staffers out with a mysterious virus, she was having too much trouble covering the required ratios. At least Elsa was still fine, and Mary Margaret - without the head counsellor and the arts and crafts leader they'd _really_ be lost.

"Yeah, that's what all the staff is calling Regina this year. She's lost it, Swan, totally gone off the deep end. Even Robin says he's pretty sure she's got a split personality." Elsa twisted open the cap of her bottle and took a long drink. Robin, the sports director, was usually pretty laid back, especially when it came to Regina. The two had just started going out a few months back, and it seemed to be going well. Except for her being totally evil while on camp duty.

"Speaking of deep end," Emma looked up, pen hovering over the stack of paperwork, "did you manage to find any lifeguards for Tuesday and Wednesday?"

Elsa nodded. "Yeah, one. A neighbour of mine, really needs the job, his brother basically begged me to take him. He can do both days, and he's got all the qualifications. Overqualified, come to think of it."

Emma raised an eyebrow at her friend. "Really? Come on, Frozen, don't tell me I'm going to have to be locked in a power struggle with some hot-shot beach boy with a hero complex for the rest of the summer like last year." It had been a disaster the previous summer, the new lifeguard, Neal, thinking he ran the beach simply because he couldn't stand the idea of Emma being in charge of him.

"Nah," Elsa winked as she stood. "This one's actually good-looking."

Emma groaned and put her head down on the table. "Elsa…" She'd been running waterfront for five years now, had managed to put down rebellious lifeguards year after year - it was no big deal, really. After a few minutes, she was usually able to let them know, in no uncertain terms, who was boss. But with the plague sweeping through camp this year, she was already short-staffed and short-tempered. The last thing she needed was some lifeguard trying to assert his superiority over her. Especially if he was good-looking.

"Gotta go get the kids from lunch," replied the head counsellor as she headed toward the door. "I think you'll like him, Swan."

 _Nope, not gonna happen,_ Emma thought as she watched her friend leave. No matter what, she already decided she was not going to like the new guy. Besides, with the way things were going this summer, he'd probably quit after the first hour anyway.

The door swung shut as Emma lifted her water bottle and drained the rest of it.

* * *

The Evil Queen was going to turn her into a murderer.

She had felt her blood boiling by the end of camp on Friday, grateful for the weekend to get some much-needed rest and time to herself, but Regina didn't let up. Emma's phone had beeped just about every hour with more concerns from the camp director, more problems, more issues she "desperately needed a saviour to solve". She tried to be polite, firm, she even tried ignoring her phone for a few hours, but she loved that camp, she wouldn't just walk away because Regina was being obnoxious.

By the time camp rolled around on Monday, Emma was sure she was going to throw Regina off the first pier she saw. Or tie her to a tree in the woods. Or...

Elsa greeted her with a wave as she trudged up the path toward the staff room. "Come on over and meet him!" she cried.

 _Who the he-_

 _Oh, right,_ she remembered with an inward groan. The new lifeguard was set to begin training today, though he didn't start working officially until tomorrow.

Wonderful.

Elsa grabbed her backpack off her shoulder and Emma stepped inside, where most the staff was sitting huddled around a definitely new face. Dark tousled hair, deeply-tanned skin, light eyes, his accented voice regaling the others in some wildly adventurous tale, he laughed loudly and looked around the room. Meeting her eyes, he _winked_ , then turned back to the other counsellors to finish his story.

Emma spun around and walked out of the cabin.

Elsa followed.

"Swan, what's wrong?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"No way, Fro. No way I'm working with… that conceited, winking, obnoxious… thing." She pointed back to the now-closed door, her voice raised to almost hysterical levels, but she didn't care. "After everything I've had to put up with-"

"Swan" Elsa tried.

"-this stupid virus that everyone decided to share putting all of us-"

"Emma-"

"-and the lifeguards walking off after that fake missing camper drill and not to mention-"

"EMMA!"

Elsa grabbed her shoulders tightly, shook her a bit until Emma finally stopped talking and looked at her friend.

"What?" she sighed, resigned to the obvious signs that this would be the worst summer ever.

"That's Graham," Elsa said, a soft smile on her face. "Graham Humbert, Robin's new assistant. He's demonstrating tracking skills this week in the teen bunks, remember?"

Oh. She felt some of her anger deflating, though she still held onto some, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Your new lifeguard's around the back," Elsa continued, nodding toward the other side of the wraparound porch. "He didn't seem so crazy about crowds, but he seems nice and he's everything we need, so please behave and don't scare him off?"

Emma couldn't have felt more like a cartoon at that moment, with her jaw dropped and scraping at the ground. She managed to close her mouth and nod as Elsa patted her shoulders, grinned brightly, and headed back inside the cabin.

She let out a deep breath. It didn't really matter, she was already determined not to like the new guy anyway, even if he wasn't anything like the big shot who was currently enthralling all the staff members with his wildly exaggerated tales of wolf wrestling, or whatever the hell it was he did.

 _Better get it over with_ , she thought with a sigh, as she set her shoulders and forced her feet to carry her across the porch. Rounding the corner quietly (though how much he had heard of her uncontrolled rant a minute before, she had no idea), she saw the new lifeguard sitting on the long bench of the hanging swing, rocking back and forth gently, his pensive gaze focused somewhere over the lake.

He wasn't bad looking, Elsa wasn't wrong on that front, with his dark hair brushed across his forehead in a rakish part. He glanced up at her as she stepped across the wooden floorboards, his bright blue eyes sparkling in the morning sunlight that was glinting off the lake, and there was a depth to them she hadn't expected.

"Good morning," he said softly as he stood, a light accent colouring his words. He extended his hand to her and she took it, shaking lightly. "I'm Killian Jones, the new lifeguard?"

"H-hey. Yeah. I'm, uh, Emma." God, she sounded like an _idiot_. "But you can call me Swan, everyone does around here."

"Is that like a codename?" he asked with a grin, dimples deepening in his cheeks as he did.

"Something like that. You'll get yours soon enough." _If you stay_ , she almost added.

"So what do they call the flashy, shouting woman I met on the way up here," he asked, "the Evil Queen?"

"Actually, yeah," she laughed, but her tone grew serious again. Best to get right down to business. It would be easier to deal with him leaving if she didn't have pleasant memories associated with the brief time he spent there before quitting, like everyone else seemed to. "Anyway, I'm head of waterfront, I know you talked to Frozen earlier? Uh, Elsa, I mean."

He nodded. "Yeah, she said I should make sure to let you know it won't be a problem, with the hand. I've passed certification without any problems, and I'm a strong swimmer and licensed instructor. I also have advanced CPR training."

"Oh that's goo- wait, what? The hand?"

A slow blush spread across his cheeks as he held up his left forearm. She looked, and managed to hold back her gasp of surprise. His arm ended abruptly just below the wrist, a network of scars criss-crossing the end of the stump where his hand clearly wasn't. "Boating accident, four years ago. But I was lifeguarding for years before it happened, it doesn't really make much of a difference," he shrugged.

It was her turn to blush. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know, I'm not sure-"

His face fell. "Oh, you can't hire me like this, I get it. I didn't expect-"

"No, I just meant I didn't-"

"-the last three places also turned me down because of-"

"I really think it'll be-"

"-brother said it was foolish to even hope the camp would-"

"Killian." She reached out and touched his arm, just above the missing hand. He froze, falling silent as he glanced at her fingers, then looked up at her.

She knew then how Elsa had felt just moments before and the absurdity of it drew a laugh from her. He just watched her, one eyebrow cocked, but she couldn't help it, giggles spilling from her uncontrollably as the stress from the summer so far finally got to her.

"I'm sorry," she finally managed to gasp once the laughter subsided. "I'm not laughing at you, I promise. I just… it seems Elsa was right, you aren't really what I expected. But," she added hurriedly, watching the way his expression took a downward turn, "I think you're exactly what we need around here."

A small smile peeked out at the corners of his mouth, a tiny glimmer of hope in his eyes. "You think so?" he said quietly.

She nodded, a wide grin on her face. "Yeah, I do. Come on, I'll show you how this place works."

* * *

It took two hours for the kids to start calling him Captain Hook, even though he wasn't technically on duty yet. To her surprise, far from being embarrassed or upset by the reference to his lost limb, he seemed to love it, joking with the campers about the crocodile that snatched away his hand when he ignored waterfront rules. Emma saw how well he got along with the little ones, the way he encouraged them through their swimming lessons and laughed along with them, all while maintaining a strict no-tolerance policy toward rulebreakers that the kids really seemed to respect. He may have been shy with the counsellors, but he was a natural with the kids.

It took two days for him to ask if she needed him more than just twice a week, another two minutes for her to get permission from the Evil Queen (who was _still_ driving her toward insanity during her off hours), but soon he was part of the daily staff, slowly coming out of his shell around the other staff members as well. He quickly learned all their nicknames, and they easily referred to him as Hook, which he seemed to love. But his smile was always brighter around her, his eyes shining with that same hopeful expression as the first time they met, and she couldn't help feeling that her time spent around him was the best parts of her day.

It took two weeks for her to challenge him to a swimming race during all-camp swim time. All the kids stood at the beachfront and cheered, dividing themselves into Team Swan and Team Hook to root for their favourite. He grinned at her before they began, told her not to go easy on him, and she assured him she had no intention of making _anything_ easy for him. The other staff served as judges and, when Snow (Mary Margaret's moniker) shouted "GO!", Emma and Killian leapt off the pier simultaneously and swam furiously across the lake. He was a powerful swimmer, faster than all the other lifeguards despite his handicap, but even he was no match for her. She almost felt bad, climbing onto the pier afterward, a triumphant grin on her face as he pulled up behind her. But his smile was even wider than hers.

"You bested me, Swan," he said, brushing the water from his eyes with his hand, which he then extended to her for a handshake. "Well played." He pulled her up from the wooden planks, and soon she found herself standing entirely closer to Killian Jones than she ever thought she would.

She was so close, she could smell the unique blend of lakewater and his sweat on him, her hand still holding his as they regarded each other, trapped in a private moment of silence amidst the shouts and laughter of every camper. She could barely breathe as she looked into his eyes, and he into hers, and she soon found her gaze wandering down his face, to the neatly-trimmed scruff along his jaw, the light dusting of hair down his neck and covering the suntanned muscles of his torso. Though she'd seen him shirtless a dozen times while lifeguarding or giving lessons, she couldn't stop staring at the way the water ran down his heaving chest as he caught his breath from the race, and she knew then that she was _definitely_ in more trouble than she'd thought.

She blinked, looked back up at him, the brilliant blue of his eyes threatening to steal away her just-regained breath. But the moment was gone as he leaned down to the dock to grab his shirt. He smiled brightly, the special smile just for her, dimples deep in his cheeks as he turned and ran off toward the campers.

He treated the kids on both teams to freeze-pops in celebration of his defeat.

But the end of camp was creeping forward before she was ready. Another three days and camp would be over. Another three days and Killian would go back to his real life, and she'd get back to hers, twenty miles from each other. As happy as she was to get away from Regina for a whole ten months, she found herself dreading each day as it passed, dreading spending more time with him, dreading separating from him at the end of it. She avoided him as much as she could, and though it hurt, watching his smile for her dim with each passing day, it was easier than saying goodbye.

Finally, it was the last day of camp. Emma helped Frozen and Snow pack up the bunkhouses, locking away all the supplies that would keep for next year, and stubbornly refused to head into the lifeguarding closet, leaving that chore to the others to handle. They could follow a checklist just as well as she could, she figured.

But she couldn't escape him in the staff bunk, and he all but cornered her as she went in to get the last of her stuff.

"Did I offend you, Swan?" he asked quietly, standing just behind her. She froze at the sound of his voice. Turning around slowly, she was unwilling to meet his eyes. "Did I do something wrong?"

She shook her head, wishing he would just go. She finally looked up at him, certain she could conceal everything from his penetrating gaze. "You were fine, Hook. Great lifeguard, better than we ever expected. The kids loved you."

She hitched her backpack higher on her shoulder, nudging to go past him, but he stood firm. "Then why have you been pulling away from me?"

She didn't respond. She couldn't. She had no idea how to say what she was thinking. She didn't want to like him - hell, she wanted to _hate_ him before she even met him. But the way he'd looked at her on the porch that first day and every day since, as if she was important to him, as if she mattered, as if he would do anything for her… it unnerved her. She wasn't used to be treated like some sort of a princess, she wasn't used to people sticking around, and he…

Well. He liked her, that much was clear. And she definitely liked him back. But she didn't want to admit that on the last day of camp, not when they were both going their separate ways probably never to see each other again, or at least not for another year.

"I don't… I can't…" she trailed off, unable to find the words.

The hurt in his eyes melted into something softer, gentler, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"Go out with me?" he asked quietly.

She nearly dropped her backpack in surprise. "What? Hook, we can't just-"

"Why not? I know you live only a few miles from here and I-"

"-never see each other-"

"-make a plan for where to meet so-"

"-wouldn't work and you know-"

"Emma."

This time, it was his hand on her arm, grounding her, centering her, pulling her out of her frantic excuses. She closed her mouth.

"I like you," he said softly, his eyes bright with that same look he'd had for her on day one. "I have since the moment we met, when you first gave me a chance. You trusted me, despite my… limitations. And you've treated me like an equal all this time, like a partner. No one's done that for me, not since before the accident, and I think we made quite the team.

"I enjoyed spending time with you, Emma, getting to know you. And I'd like the chance to get to know you better, if you'll let me."

She hesitated, deciding just how open she wanted to be with this man who'd already gotten closer than anyone had in years, then nodded slowly, and said in a voice closer to a whisper, "I'd like that, too."

"Good," he smiled, and she couldn't help but return the expression. "I know we don't live _so_ close to each other, but it's not like the other side of the world."

She couldn't help the relief that flooded through her the more it seemed it could work out between them, that he wanted to make it work. Or at least that it was worth a shot, worth trying.

"So I'll ask again," he continued, still holding her arm. "Emma Swan, will you go out with me?"

She thought about it for only a second before blurting out a quick, "Yes."

His smile grew impossibly brighter, and he nodded. "Okay. Tonight at eight? Or tomorrow, whatever works best for-"

"Tonight works," she cut him off, then laughed. "I'm sorry, I'll try to stop interrupting you like that."

"We can practice tonight. I'll see you later."

His grin unwavering, he turned and left the cabin.

* * *

It took two dates before he kissed her goodnight. Two months before she referred to herself as his girlfriend. And by the time camp rolled around the next year, she had just moved into his apartment in the weeks before. Regina and Robin had moved to Vermont, leaving camp directorship to Emma and sports to Graham, who really wasn't such an obnoxious guy once she'd gotten to know him. Killian got waterfront duty, Elsa was still head counsellor, and Mary Margaret - heavily pregnant but determined to work up until her due date - maintained arts and crafts.

They took their jobs seriously, though they tried to have as much fun with the campers as possible, and everyone enjoyed the more relaxed atmosphere without being under the rule of the Evil Queen. And when Killian asked her to marry him on the porch where they first met, she didn't hesitate for a moment, rushing into his arms with an exuberant, "Yes!" to the amusement and cheering of the entire staff.

It was the best summer Emma could remember.


End file.
